DNC Slams ‘Disturbing’ RNC ‘Census’ Mailer

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Picking up on TPMmuckraker’s report from this morning, the Democratic National Committee is slamming its Republican counterpart for sending out a misleading fundraising mailer marked “Census Document”, even after Congress last month passed a law aimed at banning such mailers.

DNC chair Tim Kaine accused Michael Steele and co. of “flouting a law passed by Congress unanimously, and signed by the President, as a direct result of the RNC’s previous efforts to confuse people on this very issue.”

The new RNC mailer can be seen here.

Here’s the full statement from Kaine:

The United States Census is critical to our country. Full and accurate results are necessary to ensure that American communities get the resources and the funding they need to flourish. Unfortunately, the Republican National Committee continues to send out fundraising documents that strongly suggest they are official census mailers, threatening Americans’ responsiveness to actual Census documents and potentially distorting Census results.

It is disturbing that the Republican National Committee is flouting a law passed by Congress unanimously, and signed by the President, as a direct result of the RNC’s previous efforts to confuse people on this very issue. The RNC should stop trying to raise money in a way that could scare and confuse voters as well as disrupt the census process. Most immediately, they should stop using mailers that fly in the face of a law meant to stop just this sort of activity.

As we reported earlier, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who sponsored the law, already has lambasted the new mailer, asking of the RNC: “What is with these guys?”

And the Nebraska Democratic Party has lodged a formal complaint with the U.S. Postal Servie about the mailer.

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